Plastic shopping bags have become of universal use in grocery, department and other stores over the past several decades. Among the most popular type of plastic bags are those which are provided with orificed handles by which packs of such bags may be mounted on racks, comprising a base and a back structure with a pair of rods spaced from each other projecting forwardly. Such bags are commonly referred to as T-shirt bags since they resemble T-shirts of the tank type.
Numerous patents have been granted not only covering the combination of such bags with a rack, but also many variants of these bags. Among such variants are the types of bags which have central detachable portions extending upwardly from the bag mouths. Such portions may be transversely slotted to enable a pack of such bags to be mounted on an upwardly projecting hooking element also extending forwardly for a short distance from the center of the back support of the rack between the forwardly projecting rack rods. As each of such bags is pulled forwardly from the pack, at a certain point, the detachable central portion is torn from the bag wall defining the bag mouth, to remain on the central hooking element.
Initially each bag of the pack was separately pulled forward on the rack, filled by the store clerk and pulled off the forward ends of the rods, thereupon tearing the back wall from the central detachable portion projecting upwardly from the bag mouth and mounted on the central hooking element.
At some point in the development of various improved types of plastic bags, it was determined that if the back side of the back wall of the first bag were adhered by a glue spot to the front wall of the next ensuing bag of the bag pack, when the first bag was pulled forward on the rack, filled with articles and then removed from the rack, the front wall of the next ensuing bag would be drawn forward on the rack and readied for filling of the bag. This technique is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,935 which teaches placing the glue spot in the neck of the central upwardly projecting bag wall portion just below the detachment slots of the upwardly projecting portion on the bag wall defining the bag mouth. Other patents have shown glue spots centrally disposed below such bag neck.
The problem with these prior art glue spot bags is that either the glue spot may be so small that the back wall of the first bag becomes separated from the front wall of the ensuing bag before such back wall has pulled such front wall of the ensuing bag forward enough for filing; or alternatively, if the glue spot is too large, as the leading bag is pulled off the rack and the next ensuing bag is pulled forward for opening the bag mouth, a plurality of bags are also simultaneously pulled forward in a series so that each bag has to be separated by hand from the bag immediately following it. This result has frequently caused bag users to be dissatisfied with bag packs having glue spots.
What has been needed, therefore, is some system by which a leading bag may be removed from a rack while initiating the opening of the bag mouth of the next ensuing bag, but without also simultaneously pulling out and opening in succession subsequent bags of the pack.